Israeli air strikes target southern Beirut
Israel carried out drone and air strikes in southern Beirut after the army issued "urgent" expulsion warnings for Lebanese residents in parts of the capital on Friday.
A preliminary Israeli air strike targeted a building in the Hadath neighbourhood on Friday afternoon, in what was an apparent "warning shot", Reuters reported, citing witnesses and security sources.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic language spokesperson, issued a warning minutes earlier, along with a map, to "those in the southern suburb of Beirut, especially in the Hadath neighbourhood".
"To everyone present in the building marked in red as shown on the map and the buildings adjacent to it: You are present near facilities belonging to Hezbollah," Adraee wrote on X, accompanied by a satellite image of the alleged site.
"For your safety and the safety of your families, you are obliged to evacuate these buildings immediately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 300 metres, as shown on the map."
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While Israel has regularly attacked southern Lebanon in recent weeks and months, it is the first such expulsion order in Beirut since a ceasefire with Hezbollah was agreed in November.
Lebanon's education ministry instructed the closure of all public and private schools, secondary institutions, vocational centres, and the Rafik Hariri University Complex in Hadath, according to the state-run National News Agency.
All students, teachers and administrative staff were told to stay away from the area on Friday, with a call for "heightened caution in student transportation to ensure everyone’s safety".
A state of confusion and fear gripped the Jamous neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs following Israel's warning, state news reported.
Traffic came to a standstill as residents fled en masse, fearing an Israeli escalation. Gunfire was also heard in the area after the release of the expulsion warning, witnesses told Reuters.
Israel attacks southern Lebanon
It came as Israel launched a wave of attacks in southern Lebanon on Friday, including a deadly strike on Kfar Tebnit in Nabatieh.
The attack killed one person and wounded eight others, including three children, Lebanon's health ministry said.
Earlier on Friday, Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Lebanon. Hezbollah denied involvement in the attack.
The group has also denied involvement in a salvo of rocket attacks on northern Israel six days ago. Hezbollah said the incidents were part of attempts by Israel to create a pretext to resume its war on Lebanon.
Israeli artillery and air strikes hit southern Lebanon on 22 March, killing at least eight people.
Under the ceasefire deal agreed in November, Hezbollah was to remove its weapons from southern Lebanon, while Israeli ground forces were to withdraw and the Lebanese army to deploy in the area.
Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, carrying out frequent attacks on southern Lebanon and maintaining a ground presence in five positions near the border.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, speaking at a press conference in Paris with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, condemned the strike on Beirut.
"We reject any attack on Lebanon and any suspicious attempt to return Lebanon to the cycle of violence," he said. Aoun also confirmed that current information indicates that Hezbollah was not the party responsible for the rockets fires on Israel.
Macron said "there is no clear information about what happened in the south to justify the Israeli strikes".
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